Wegmans' fourth Greece store open for business

There is something for shoppers of all ages – kids included – at the new Wegmans Food Market on Mt. Read Boulevard that opened last weekend.

Colleen Farrell

There is something for shoppers of all ages – kids included – at the new Wegmans Food Market on Mt. Read Boulevard that opened last weekend.

There is a place for them to play, supervised, while mom and dad shop. On the way out of the checkout lane, the kids can be picked up at the front of the store.

They even get a front row seat to Wegmans’ old-fashioned sub shop in its new 130-seat Market Café. There are replica Adirondack-style chairs and picnic tables for the little ones with a set of stairs leading to a window through which the sub workers can be seen.

That wasn’t planned, said spokeswoman Jo Natale, when the store was first designed. But after seeing the layout, designers thought why not offer a view to the youngest customers, she said.

All in an effort for the supermarket chain to make shopping less of a chore.
"Shopping doesn’t need to be drudgery," Natale said. "It can be fun. It can be informative. It can be relaxing. I think what we’ve tried to do is make the experience enjoyable."

What greeted workers Sunday was something akin to a rock concert, with nearly 700 people lining up by 7 a.m. to get their first peek inside. More than 10,000 visited that day, Natale said.

The 100,000-square-foot store replaces an older, smaller Wegmans from the 1960s. The new layout, with the building oriented 90 degrees from its previous spot, offers more parking and amenities familiar in other Wegmans stores, like the café, coffee bar, cheese shop, seafood counter, an expanded Nature's Marketplace and pizza kitchen.
Store manager Jennifer Hall, who worked at the old store, too, said her workers were counting down the days until the store opened.

"Now, any building with 'Wegmans' on the outside it is pretty terrific, but a new one ... that's even better," she said.

Despite spreading south to Maryland and Virginia, the supermarket chain remembers its roots in a 230-foot long mural along the back wall of the store. Painted by Adirondack Scenic out of Glens Fall, N.Y., it depicts local landmarks such as Russell Station, the Charlotte pier, Rochester skyline, original Our Mother of Sorrows Church and Dutch Mill restaurant and party house. The only other store to have a mural is Pittsford, which opened in 1997. That mural, though, depicts food.

And while looking at the mural, don't forget to look up, where a model train suspended from the ceiling makes the rounds.

The Mt. Read store also has another first - a clock tower. New stores outside the area include them, but the Mt. Read store is the only one in the Rochester area to have one, Natale said.

Wegmans is known for being good to employees, ranking third on "Fortune"

magazine's annual list of best companies to work for last year. It shows at Mt. Read, where banners with employees' pictures and their words about their company hang above the 19 checkout lines.

"This is amazing," one employee said as she pointed out co-workers. "I have shivers."

Colleen M. Farrell can be reached at (585) 394-0770, Ext. 265, or at cfarrell@mpnewspapers.com.